Hydroponics root rot

Hydroponics root rot

Sat Jul 21, 2018 8:35 am

Hey:)

I'm currently struggeling with hydroponics. I'm very new to this. I read in forums that light and other stuff may cause problems so i decided to use a 500 ml mason jar that i painted, the only light inside comes from a 5mm slit i use to check on the roots and the water level and it's turned away from the light source. To my problem. whenever i change the nutrition solution the roots die within 2 days and new roots are forming. the plant is grwoing steadily though. i always see a white fuzz on the roots when they die. They turn lightbrown in 10h and coninue to get darker up until the 2nd day where they are basically black (see the photo) when i only add water though they do quite fine and a lot of roots develope quite fast. I use the flora series, with a ph down and a root enhancer always in the concentration that is written on either the botthle or the feedchart (recirculating) as well a a sip op h2o2 but am not to sure whetere it has any effect at all.. I used destilled water and tap water and stuck to the tap water as i couldn't keep the destilled water's ph in the 5.5-6.0 zone. the temp in the glass is between 23-25 deg aka room temperature. Is there anything else i can do? Thanks for any suggestion!greetings!

Re: Hydroponics root rot

Sun Jul 22, 2018 6:47 am

Brown roots means the system is not balanced. If you are using tap water, is it chlorinated? If the water is chlorinated collect it 24 hours to few days in advance and allow it to sit out and stir or aerate it until the chlorine off gasses.

If you are doing Kratky, you should not be changing the water so often. If the plant is small and early maturing say around 30-50 days, the original solution should be able to last until you harvest. An aerator stone sometimes helps to improve growth but is not usually necessary on a bottle set up. I have never used such a small jar. Usually lettuce uses a 2 liter soda bottle. You should be using a hydroponic solution designed for the plant you are using. Kratky developed a master blend. You mix it once the water level will drop as the water evaporates and as the plant takes up the water. Roots will extend to reach into the water. Roots that are out of the water are air roots not water roots and should not be submerged again or they are likely to rot. If the bottle or system is not clean, and the water is not clean to start with, bacteria will grow and eventually even in a balanced system roots will turn brown and go bad. If the system is set up properly the roots should remain healthy and white the entire time. Usually, kratky does not require a lot of checking and tweaking but if you need to invest in a helpful tool for hydroponics it would be the ec meter. pH and ec are the most important things to keep in range.

Re: Hydroponics root rot

Mon Jul 30, 2018 9:04 am

I had this problem, when try to grow plants in a water without substrate. I think it is because oxygen is not enought. I don't think that reason is in nutriens, only if bacteria or algae in water, which grow on roots or eat oxygen. But it that case you have to keep pH between 5 and 7. They grow bad in that conditions. You can decreace pH with sulphuric acid. Organic acids are not good for this purposes - they are not stable. And don't use clay, as a substrate, because it increases pH. The best way - using a vermiculite. In this case roots are not in water, it is good aeration, vermiculit is a good doner of minerals, and it is very inert. by the way, yes you can use h2o2 if you have not got a pump for water aeration. concentration is around 30 ml/1 l water.

Re: Hydroponics root rot

Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:51 am

The first time I tried hydro, I grew lettuce in a 2 liter bottle. Iused miracle grow instead. It did ok, but made the mistake of refilling the bottle thinking it was evaporating too fast. That is when the roots rotted. The lettuce grew but was small. Ie think one of the other problems was because we did not get the hydroponic solution and the miracle grow was not concentrated enough with the right nutrients to grow a larger plant. It was hard for to get the solution since there was only 1 hydroponic store on the island at the time. Now, there are 2 and I found out I can get the nutrients from amazon if I plan ahead.

More recently a table hydro set up was gifted to the garden after an ag day event. The person who inherited it, did not harvest in time. The system was left out in the rain so the solution got diluted and mold and algae started growing in the reservoir and the remaining plant roots turned brown and rotted.